Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed Codename Red becomes Assassin's Creed Shadows.

This is the Assassin's Creed game that will be set in Japan.

Trailer premieres on May 15th.

I believe this is the same team who did Odyssey, for reference.

I sincerely hope it's not Shogunate era Japan. I've always dreamed of a WW 2 era Japan where the older traditions were clashing with the modern world and a horrific global conflict. I think it's an era of Japan's history that doesn't get enough actual media focus- at least not from the Japanese side of the setting.

Pshah. As if they'd go for anything but the low-hanging fruit.

Not that I would blame them. It would sell a lot more to be in that era.

Would it though?

Because you're going up against games like Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro at that point. And those are REALLY good games with high praise and respect. There are plenty of other games from those eras out there too.

I kinda feel like, if they do their low hanging fruit thing, they're putting themselves in direct comparison to ambrosia of the gods.

If they went the route of a different and less media represented era of Japan, there are almost no video games to actually compare it with. The game would probably stand on it's own a lot more in terms of assessing it's quality and creating it's own identity in a sea of other games out there.

Or, at the least, Ubisoft's mediocrity that I'm sure will be there won't be as noticeably bad.

Don't want to give Mirage too much credit, but there are still so few games that represent that era and culture that it's predecessor, AC 1, is still the only one in the ring with it.

Honestly, I wouldn't trust Ubisoft to do a game about WWII Japan.

Even if the setting is restricted within Japan itself, you've still go the issue of the comfort women and things like that.

I mean I don't care that much, but it's still a lot more likely that people will be attracted to the Sengoku Jidai more than to WW 2 Japan.

The image they posted way back during when they made an announcement about this, Mirage, and a few other games in the works, they pretty clearly showed a ninja in Sengoku era Japan. So idk why anyone would even think it might be during any other time period.

Edited by Silentedge89 on May 13th 2024 at 8:27:22 AM

Pfft, if they can ignore slavery in the ancient world and the treatment of women in Athens, they can ignore comfort women in Japan, or just give a short nod at it and move on. This series is not exactly above whitewashing uncomfortable aspects of history.

Also, there is no chance of a game set in WWII. That's just way too late for a series that centers around swords, stabbing, and stealth.

The latest I can see the game taking place in within Japan is probably early to mid-Meiji era, right around the Satsuma Rebellion that ended the samurai as a social class altogether.

Another period I can see is during Bakumatsu, which is right at the tail-end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and when the Shinsengumi were active.

Edited by ITNW1989 on May 14th 2024 at 6:55:34 AM

I wonder who they're even going to say are the Templars. The Sengoku Jidai was all a whole bunch of warlords trying to take over the country. The Meiji Restoration is both the Imperial and Shogunate factions trying to take over the country.

That said, I do suppose that the short-lived Tosa Republic could serve as a base for an Assassins faction.

If they're following the canon we got from all those bits and pieces in the past, then the Tokugawa Sgogunate would have been allied with the Assassins, as they had been throughout the Sengoku and Edo Periods, while the Templars infiltrated Emperor Meiji's court, and went all in on infiltrating Japan when Perry's delegation arrived. The Templars were more or less nonexistent for the entirety of the Edo Period, and only started getting back into prominence during the Meiji Era.

There's also the fact that the Templars are usually associated with Christianity in the historical settings, and Christianity was heavily persecuted in Japan.

Francis Xavier is specifically a Templar in the setting, having arrived early on in the Sengoku Period. They did end up finding a foothold with Chiyome and her clan, though as mentioned above, they mostly failed to really gain any serious influence in Japan until the Meiji Era, which is why I'm guessing the game is going to be set around then, unless Ubisoft considers Fragments and Memories non-canon.

Really goes to show how little Ubisoft cares about historicity when the Tokugawa proceeded to close off the entire country when they won.

I feel like there's a confusion in regards to the timeline of Japanese history here. Japan was open to foreign trade during the Sengoku Period, which would have been the perfect time for both the Assassins and Templars to place their footholds there, which is exactly what happened, though from what Altair implies there was already Assassin influence in Japan all the way back to the Kamakura Period of the 12th century. The Tokugawa Shogunate of the Edo Period follows the Sengoku Period, which is when Japan went into isolation and cut off all foreign influence for the next 250 years, meaning the fact that the Templar Order withered during that time period while the Assassins flourished, as they were literally part of the Shogunate, makes perfect sense. The Edo Period is then followed by the Meiji Era, which is when Japan is forcibly reopened for foreign trade by Commodore Perry, reopening the country to foreign influence.

I'm not sure where Ubisoft's disdain for actual history comes into play here.

Edited by ITNW1989 on May 14th 2024 at 8:57:23 AM

Quite simply, I don't see how the "Closed country" policy matches the philosophy of the Assassins.

The social stratification that Toyotomi Hideyoshi enacted might have raised some eyebrows within the Order, but nothing about isolationism strictly clashes with any of the tenets of the Creed. It's possible that the Brotherhood went along with the Tokugawa's isolationism to secretly protect a Piece of Eden, with the very limited trades happening with China and the Dutch traders of Nagasaki being the only reliable source of information in and out of the country.

I would imagine that the extremely strict repression of the peasantry by the Shogunate and the Samurai caste would be quite against the Assassin's tenets.

Edited by Resileafs on May 14th 2024 at 2:37:05 PM

I just wonder how they'll portray the Samurai. Whether they'll go with the Hollywood approach of portraying them as these romantic, honourable Warrior Poets, or if they won't shy away from showing their unsavory sides.

Going by how they went for the vikings...

The game is almost guaranteed to be as Anachronism Stew-riddled as Ghost of Tsushima, especially if it's going to be set any time prior to the Meiji Era. Games almost always tend to smash samurai settings into one huge mishmashed pot.

I feel like I need a history book to follow this convo.

The way I understand it is:

Assassin's Creed canon currently states that the Tokugawa Shogunate of feudal Japan was aligned with the Assassin Order.

The problem is that the Tokugawa Shogunate was essentially a military dictatorship, and the policies they implemented were more in line with Templar philosophies of using control to enforce order. Things like cutting Japan off from the rest of the world, or how strictly hierarchical their society was.

Yeah, that doesn't sound like them... but there is some precedent for Assassins and Templars basically switching sides, more or less, like during the French Revolution. Maybe they'll go for something like that?

Or maybe they go the modern route and just call the orders something else and just say they are not entirely like the modern varieties. And of course, being isolated and on the other side of the world (quite literally at the other end of the world from where the Templars started, in fact) could also be an excuse.

You can always watch Bill Wurtz's History of Japan for a quick run-through.